


Gonna Love You Any Old Way

by love_killed_the_superstar



Series: But Beautiful We Three Are [8]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 03:40:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15621747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/love_killed_the_superstar/pseuds/love_killed_the_superstar
Summary: 10. “You can't hand that in!” Pearl admonished, peering over Blue's shoulder in disdain. Blue's quill scratched to a halt.“Why not? I already filled up most of the parchment.”





	Gonna Love You Any Old Way

**Author's Note:**

> Ahhhh I'm so behind this polypearls bomb!!! Some really bad irl stuff happened a couple days ago and I was in a bad place and not really in any mood to write. But I also love these girls and want to tell their story so, I'm pushing on. I have two angst scenarios written up but I want to space them out a bit ^^;; I think the first will be coming up at some point today.

Sunday evenings at Hogwarts were always blanketed in an aura of fatigue. Students stumbled around with lead in their bones, the weight of Monday morning incoming crushing their motivations; the Quidditch pitch was empty, save for four determined team captains, throwing quaffles at each other for fun; orange and purple sunsets cast strange shadows across the corridors, scaring first years into early retirement into their common rooms, packed with students listening to their crackling radios and playing games of exploding snap.

Another common occurrence was the manic rush to finish all homework due first thing Monday morning. Such was the case for a Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin trifecta, stationed in a quiet, cosy corner of the library away from the rest of the world. Madam Pince would pass by every so often, trying to suss out if they were causing any trouble, but the only thing visible from a distance was a trio of students fighting the clock for more time, hurriedly scribbling away on their parchments, books and small cans of butterbeer and the occasional stray every-flavour bean strewn across the table.

“That had better not be your neat draft.”

Blue barely glanced up at Pearl’s comment, sensing the edge to her voice.

“Oh, but it is.”

“You can't hand that in!” Pearl admonished, peering over Blue's shoulder in disdain. Blue's quill scratched to a halt.

“Why not? I already filled up most of the parchment.”

“Because you've been drawing all over it, that's why! You really think the professor will be okay with you submitting this when it has your doodles on? You're preparing for OWLs this year, you know!”

Blue rolled her eyes, grateful her fringe disguised her sass. Pearl still gave her a look that implied she knew what Blue was doing.

“My drawings are great.”

“She's got a point,” Yellow drawled, setting her own finished piece of parchment to one side for the ink to dry. “Blue's got talent. Too bad art isn't a real job.”

“The only people who say that are people who can't draw and are bitter about it,” Blue retorted, sticking her tongue out. Yellow cracked a smile and leaned across to flick her affectionately on the nose.

“Stay on task,” Pearl admonished, eyes skimming over Blue’s writing. “You’re waffling in this last paragraph, Blue.”

“It’s hard  _ not _ to waffle when I have no idea what I’m talking about.”

“Just read the footnotes in your textbook.”

“I’d rather just do something cooler.”

“Cooler?” Pearl looked affronted. “What could  _ possibly _ be cooler than the common uses of gillyweed?”

“Anything,” drawled Yellow.

“Making art, for one. Or drinking butterbeer. Or kissing.” A dreamy smile set over Blue’s face. “Yeah, some kissing would really help right now.”

“Madam Pince said no kissing allowed in the library ever since that seventh year knocked over a bookshelf by dry-humping their boyfriend.”

“Well, I’m not one for dry-humping, personally,” Blue scoffed, mock-offended. She leaned across the table to Yellow and softly pressed her lips to hers. Yellow, ever weak to Blue’s affections, allowed her eyes to close and deepened the kiss. Pearl huffed and looked pointedly away.

“This _ really _ isn’t very productive.”

“Aw, are you jealous?” Yellow teased, breaking the kiss. “We’re always welcome to a third party joining us.”

“I’m not jealous!” Pearl exclaimed, a little too defensively. She tapped her quill against the table absently. “I’m quite happy to keep kissing to places where the paintings can’t talk and Madam Pince isn’t patrolling at all hours to make sure we aren’t looking at the restricted books.”

Yellow stared at her. “Pearl, name one painting in this whole damn school that can’t blurt out our secrets if they wanted to.”

Pearl’s cheeks coloured.

“...A fair point.”

“If anything, the library is one of the places with the best cover for us. It’s not like books can talk.”

“Regardless,” Pearl continued, irritated, “we all have homework to be getting on with.”

“We should have done it yesterday when it was raining,” complained Blue. “I wanted to sit out on the grass, by the lake.”

“The library was packed yesterday,” Yellow sighed. “Couldn’t move around it to save my life. And really, we need the books for emergency essay-padding. My handwriting is pretty damn small.”

Blue sighed. She scrutinised Yellow, with her sour expression, mussed hair from the stress she underwent every time she worked on essays, and began to doodle her on a spare scrap of parchment. Then she captured Pearl’s features in ink, her wide eyes and serious expression, her tufy strawberry blonde hair. Finally, she drew herself from memory, taking some artistic liberties by adding a little extra weight to her face, giving her hair a volume boost, and so on.

“Please stop drawing us,” groaned Pearl. “I hate being the stick in the mud, but we have to stay on task here. Your essays are due tomorrow.”

“And they’ll get done,” Blue defended. “I promise. But I could really use with a break. You look tense too… honey.”

Pearl stiffened, and she swung her head to look Blue right in the eye.

“Did you just give me a pet name?” she asked incredulously. Blue grinned a wicked, wicked grin.

“Oh, I  _ did.  _ Did you like it… darling?”

“Just reminds me of my mother,” Pearl admitted. “She’s always calling me starlight, darling, ‘dear Pearl’. So no, not particularly.”

Blue dropped her smile immediately.

“Sorry. I didn’t realise how often she did that.”

“Oh… I, uh, I didn’t mean to…” Pearl sighed, smoothing back her hair in distress. “I made things uncomfortable. Sorry.”

Blue reached over, cupping Pearl’s cheeks, pulling her close.

“You don’t have to apologise for stuff like that. Okay? You didn’t make stuff weird, you told me that I was doing something you weren’t comfortable with. That’s like, completely what a relationship is about.”

“That’s right,” Yellow chimed in, adding smugly, “although I could have told you myself that giving Pearl pet names was a bad idea.”

A light, awkward blush dusted across Pearl’s cheeks and nose, and it warmed Blue’s heart instantly to see. She dipped over and pecked her lips, quick and gentle, and gave her a tentative smile.

“Thanks for laying down a boundary. I need to know that stuff.”

Pearl, emboldened by Blue’s support, returned the kiss, her hands lingering against Blue’s before tugging them down gently. Even the tips of her ears were pinkening, Blue noted with glee.

“W-Well,” she stammered, “My new decree is that there’s no kissing until after assignments are completed-”

“That’s boring,” Yellow interrupted. She leaned across, tugging against Pearl’s teal turtleneck and pulling her into a deeper kiss that left her even more flustered and breathless than before. “This is far more entertaining.”

“Ohh, you two!” cried Pearl, her cheeks a flaming scarlet. “No more kissing! We’re getting behind schedule!”

Blue and Yellow stared at her for a few moments, turned to each other with delighted grins, and proceeded to make out across the table, almost knocking over Pearl’s half-empty can of butterbeer. She shook her head with a deep scowl, trying her hardest to ignore the sight of her two girlfriends making out in front of her, but eventually curiosity and affection won out, and she watched in exasperation as they continued to kiss. Blue had fistfuls of Yellow’s mustard yellow blouse, while she cupped Blue’s cheeks with both hands, and their little breathy noises and gentle kisses were beginning to give Pearl…  _ feelings. _

“All right, all right, can this be over and done with now?” she snapped, throwing down her quill in disgust. No response.

“Please stop kissing for two seconds,” Pearl pleaded, shaking Blue’s shoulder a little. “I don’t want you to fail because you’re horny.”

If anything, her plea only deepened their kiss.

At that moment, there was a very familiar clacking of heels, dangerously close to one of the nearby shelves, and Blue and Yellow sprung apart instantly, like they had been electrocuted. Just moments later, Madam Pince poked her head around the shelf closest to them. She watched them owlishly for a few moments, before clearing her throat and saying simply, “The library will be closing in ten minutes, girls.”

WIthout another word she walked away, and they listened out with bated breath until her footsteps were barely audible anymore. Yellow huffed out a sigh of relief, and Pearl raised her eyebrows at both of them.   
“Oh, so you’ll break apart for  _ her, _ but not me? That’s  _ really _ mature of you.”

“Oh fuck off,” muttered Yellow, hastily shoving the parchment back into her bag, uncaring of the growing ink stains on her hands.

...Safe to say, the grades for those two papers in particular left something to be desired.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading yall!! Sorry it's a bit on the short side this time. I'm rusty.


End file.
